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Official's Death Stirs Fear of Renewed Civil Unrest

CHICAGO, IL (August 3, 2005) - The tragic death this week of Sudan's newly installed vice president in a helicopter crash "feels like a setback in the emerging peace process," says Jim Sundholm, director of Covenant World Relief.

John Garang was the longtime leader of the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM), the leading opposition group against the government in Khartoum during a decades-long civil war in which two million people died. Garang became vice president of the nation two weeks ago following a recent peace accord.

"I'm just startled and grieved that his death would come at a time like this," says Sundholm, who recently returned from Sudan. "The people of Sudan have known only two weeks of stability."

A four-person Covenant delegation was in Khartoum during Garang's inauguration while visiting the Evangelical Covenant Church of South Sudan, which also has congregations in the capital city. The team traveled to Sudan to assess the situation, to participate in worship and to teach seminars. Attending were pastors, Bible school students, lay members, deacons and elders.

According to news reports Garang died when the helicopter in which he was traveling crashed into a mountain during bad weather. Rioting already has been reported in some parts of the country. Rioters believe that Arab members of the government are responsible for Garang's death, but others have said it was unlikely because the crash occurred in a region that has long been controlled by Garang supporters.

The civil war had been waged between Arabs in the north and Christians in the south. The western region of Darfur was not part of the peace agreement - violence in Darfur is relatively recent compared to the war between the north and south, Sundholm notes. Sundholm fears that violence might spread because communication is difficult in the country. "Rumors carry the day," he says. Sundholm had not heard from any of the Sudanese church leaders as of this morning.

It was the downing of the Rwandan president's airplane in 1994 that sparked the Rwandan genocide in which more than 500,000 were killed. President Juvenal Habyarimana was trying to implement a power-sharing agreement between his fellow Hutus and the rival Tutsis.

To read an account of an earlier Covenant visit to Sudan, please see South Sudan.

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